Indeed—it's actually been 21 seasons. Not that we're counting. Pittsburgh is going for win No. 82 Friday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, who are not just Canadian-free, but bankrolled by Budweiser, the most American of beers.

Actually, Grapes has a point.

Morneau: Pittsburgh acquired the 32-year-old former A.L. MVP from the Minnesota Twins last week. In 17 plate appearances so far, he has a 1.127 OPS, which is good—unsustainably so, in fact.

More relevantly, though, Morneau was a pretty good youth goaltender growing up in suburban Vancouver and, at one point, was on the roster for the Portland Winter Hawks.

"(I) was the third goalie. A backup to the backup," he told Big League Stew in 2007. "If somebody got hurt, I might have gotten out there as a backup. I played in an exhibition game and backed up some regular-season games."

Plus, he's got some hockey-caliber superstitions: With the Twins, he ate the exact same Jimmy John's sandwich before every game, drank the same bizarre Slurpee (which had to be made by teammate Nick Punto), stepped on to the field at 6:47 every night and wore No. 33 for Patrick Roy. He had to give that up with Pittsburgh, because it's retired for Honus Wagner, so he took a multiple with another serious hockey connection:

Martin: Signed in the offseason, the 30-year-old catcher has been a huge upgrade for the Pirates, offensively and defensively: he has a .733 OPS and has thrown out better than 43 percent of attempted base-stealers, second best in the league.

Martin grew up in Quebec.

“I played when I was 12 through 15. I started off as a defenseman, but I moved to right winger in my second year, though,” Martin said at the start of the season. “I was more of a grinder type. I never really had great hands.”

Snider: Cherry says he plays like a Canadian? OK. Pittsburgh actually acquired the right fielder last season from the Blue Jays. He was injured for a huge chunk of the season and hasn't quite put it together in the big leagues. He did hit a pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth against the Brewers earlier this week, though, which gave Pittsburgh win No. 81.

Also this:

Buck: Also acquired via trade in late August, Buck played for the Blue Jays in 2010. He has a .909 OPS for the Pirates in three starts thus far, and wears a goalie mask behind the plate. He also has a beard. Count it.